the adoption
of which would absolutely insure the discovery of the Pole. Naturally,
in view of the contemporaneous drift of inventive thought, flying
machines occupied a high place on the list. Motor cars, guaranteed to
run over any kind of ice, came next. One man had a submarine boat that
he was sure would do the trick, though he did not explain how we were to
get up through the ice after we had traveled to the Pole beneath it.

Still another chap wanted to sell us a portable sawmill. It was his
enterprising idea that this should be set up on the shore of the central
polar sea and that I was to use it for shaping lumber with which to
build a wooden tunnel over the ice of the polar sea all the way to the
Pole. Another chap proposed that a central soup station be installed
where the other man would have set up his sawmill, and that a series of
hose lines be run thence over the ice so that the outlying parties
struggling over the ice to the Pole could be warmed and invigorated with
hot soup from the central station.

Perhaps the gem of the whole collection was furnished by an inventor who
desired me to play the part of the "human cannon-ball." He would not
disclose the details of his invention, apparently lest I should steal
it, but it amounted to this: If I could get the machine up there, and
could get it pointed in exactly the right direction, and could hold on
long enough, it would shoot me to the Pole without fail. This was surely
a man of one idea. He was so intent on getting me shot to the Pole that
he seemed to be utterly careless of what happened to me in the process
of landing there or of how I should get back.

Many friends of the expedition who could not send cash sent useful
articles of equipment, for the comfort or amusement of the men. Among
such articles were a billiard table, various games, and innumerable
books. A member of the expedition having said to a newspaper man, a
short time before the _Roosevelt_ sailed, that we had not much reading
matter, the ship was deluged with books, magazines, and newspapers,
which came literally in wagon loads. They were strewn in every cabin, in
every locker, on the mess tables, on the deck,--everywhere. But the
generosity of the public was very gratifying, and there was much good
reading among the books and magazines.

When the time came for the _Roosevelt_ to sail, we had everything which
we absolutely needed in the way of equipment, including boxes of
Christmas ca